He's here tonight on the show, and has a new album out

March 20, 2010 9:18 AM

Celebrities on a world-tour to promote their new record/movie/tv show/book on local tv programs. Do they pay to go on worldwide tv shows, are they paid to appear on worldwide tv shows, or is it a "do ut des" (for free, a win-win for both parties) ?

During the introduction of the BBC series earth, the narrating voice commented that shooting all this amazing documentary, involving hundreds of people for several months around the globe, costed to the BBC an astounding amount of money, but still less that what it costs to produce Friday Night with Jonathan Ross (which is your typical host-celebrity guests talk show).

Of course I imagine it must be the cost of the presenter himself, but then... do the celebrities that appear on the show every week have a cost?

Hosting a celebrity should generally cost money, but a the same time, the celebrity is there to promote their newest work (nobody ever goes to a talk show just to talk, they always have something new coming out). And promoting on TV costs money.

So, what costs more? Who pays who?

posted by madeinitaly to society & culture (4 answers total)

I doubt any suh costs come out of the celebrities' pockets. Any payments, if made, would come from whoever financed and marketed the movie.

Of course one could argue that an actor is paid concomittantly less, based on those publicity expenses. But there's a reason junkets are called junkets.
posted by dfriedman at 9:25 AM on March 20, 2010

The celebrity pays nothing, but receives a union-scale fee for his/her/their appearance. The record label or film studio or whoever pays for the associated costs (hotel, travel) as a part of promotional expense. Most celebrities are obligated to take part in these otherwise low-paying promotional activities, and most do it willingly, since it pays off in the long run.
posted by Dee Xtrovert at 9:42 AM on March 20, 2010

Talk shows cost more than the average documentary because studio costs (and by studio i mean the building and all the various producers and technicians) are not negligible at all, especially since they're highly unionized. Some places even pay their studio audiences..
In this era of outsourcing inflating costs is also a very common strategy since it allows for a number of accounting shenanigans. (not referring to this particular case since i havent had the pleasure of watching this show and the beeb's site wont let my anyway)
As for who pays who, you can bet that having prince on your show will somehow cost more than having joe the plumber; bands get paid too and not just the frontman.
posted by 3mendo at 10:54 AM on March 20, 2010

I lot of talk shows have "Hotel accommodations provided by..." at the end of the show. I assume the hotels provide free rooms in exchange for his promotion
posted by Mick at 11:24 AM on March 20, 2010